Battle of Romuli

The Battle of Romuli was a battle fought on the Eastern Front of World War I in 1916. The Entente and Central Powers fought for control of a mountaintop near the Romanian village of Romuli, resulting in the mountain changing hands over seven times before the Entente forces narrowly emerged victorious over the invaders. A total of 2,027 soldiers were killed in action during the battle for Romuli.

The Allied army was overwhelmingly Russian, consisting of six regiments of Imperial Russian Army regulars (frontniks), a regiment of Latvian riflemen, and the Romanian 46th Infantry Regiment. The Central army consisted of three Austro-Hungarian Army regiments, three Bulgarian regiments, and two Imperial German Army regiments. The Central forces, advancing from the east, fought for control of the mountaintop outpost and the strongpoints on its slopes, and the Russians concentrated most of their energy on taking the mountaintop and gaining a strategic position from which they could fire down on the Central forces. The Bulgarians often took the lead with the mountaintop assault, while the frontniks formed the main Entente assault force. The two sides fought for control of the many trenches atop the mountain for a long period of time, and the mountaintop repeatedly changed hands as both sides launched bayonet charges up the mountainside and engaged in close-quarters trench warfare. Central advances on the flanks initially threatened to cut off the Entente forces, but a general counterattack forced the Central armies back. Eventually, the mountaintop was taken by the Russians, and the Entente forces launched a full-scale assault against the Central positions beyond the mountain. The battle resulted in a hard-fought Entente victory, with the strategic mountaintop being captured at high cost to both sides.